WinXp Pro

A bit off topic but I've tried some of the sites where the egg heads live so I'm back where I can usually expect some sense. Thing is, I have Win XP Pro as my OS on my smaller HD and I wish to have a bit of a re-org. However, that clever Mr. G. has arranged things so that
I cannot reformat the HD where XP lives.!!
Still, I don't buy that as I'm sure there is someone out there with an answer.
I have all my stuff backed up on CD's and have no fears of a reformat,
did enough of them with Win98, so any suggestions will be gratefully received.Ken

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

RE: WinXp Pro, kevarc, Jun-23-03, 08:37 PM, (1) RE: WinXp Pro, sd70mac666, Jun-23-03, 11:13 PM, (2) RE: WinXp Pro, kevarc, Jun-23-03, 11:33 PM, (3) RE: WinXp Pro, derekmorton, Jun-24-03, 00:16 AM, (4) RE: WinXp Pro, jonathanmlewis, Jun-24-03, 02:56 AM, (5) RE: WinXp Pro, kpa594, Jun-25-03, 09:20 PM, (6) RE: WinXp Pro, derekmorton, Jun-25-03, 10:11 PM, (7) RE: WinXp Pro, kevarc, Jun-25-03, 10:27 PM, (8) RE: WinXp Pro, kpa594, Jun-26-03, 05:09 AM, (9) RE: WinXp Pro, kevarc, Jun-26-03, 06:46 AM, (11) RE: WinXp Pro, kpa594, Jun-26-03, 08:39 AM, (13) RE: WinXp Pro, LARKIE, Jun-26-03, 09:12 AM, (14) RE: WinXp Pro, derekmorton, Jun-26-03, 07:14 AM, (12) RE: WinXp Pro, kevarc, Jun-26-03, 09:27 AM, (15) RE: WinXp Pro, LARKIE, Jun-26-03, 06:41 AM, (10) RE: WinXp Pro, pwillard, Jun-26-03, 05:29 PM, (16) RE: WinXp Pro, Bentron, Jun-26-03, 05:38 PM, (17) RE: WinXp Pro, condmike, Jun-27-03, 03:54 PM, (18)

Conferences | Topics | Previous Topic | Next Topic

LAST EDITED ON Jun-23-03 AT 08:38 PM (EDT)

Have you copied the files to another hard drive? If so you need to open a DOS window and rename the drives. XP gets funny with you if you do it the easy way. The Help files for XP will walk you through it. Reboot and delete XP from that drive and then format.Edit
If not you will need to make a boot disk and start the computer with it to DOS and then reformat the drive and then reinstall.Kevin Arceneaux
DEFAULT IS FOR DUMMIES
Lone Wolf Activities Forum on www.3DTrains.com

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

that's if you can since XP doesn't use DOS.
Boot CD's however will work. You could put the boot disk on a mini CD and run it from that
BNSF Detector Milepost 666.
No defect
Train Speed 66.6mph
Axle Count: 666
Ambient Temperature 66.6 degrees
outI'm otherwise known as the SatanTrainOh I remember now Dr. Satan. God damn it everyones got to know about Dr. Satan and you know what I'm going to do you a favor, I'm going to let you meet the old bastardIt's all true, the boogie man is real and you found him(Rob Zombie, House of 1000 Corpses)

Soon I discovered that this rock thing was true. Jerry Lee Lewis was the Devil, Jesus was an architect previous to his life as a prophet. (Ministry, Jesus Built My Hotrod)

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Hate to tell you this, but that is what I had to do when I installed my new hard drive.Kevin Arceneaux
DEFAULT IS FOR DUMMIES
Lone Wolf Activities Forum on www.3DTrains.com

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Gents,Boot from the XP cd and everything is easy.Derek

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

To format try:
Booting of the XP CD
when go though the setup wizard till it runs FDISK and when formats the drive
when EXIT SETUP BEFORE it starts copying filesThat SHOULD (MIGHT) give you a clean hard-drive...http://groups.msn.com/MSTSNarrowGauge

Jonathan Lewis
jonathanmlewis@msn.com

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

First,let me say thanks for your replies and suggestions.I'm afraid none of them quite hit the mark. Bottom line is with Win XPyou cannot change the drive letter for the boot or system disc,nor can you format that disc.However, collectively, you gave me some food for thought and I have now managed to do what I wished.For the benefit of anyone else with this prob. this is how Iachieved it.I started by installing Win XP from the CD and approx halfway through, pulled the disc. This caused a minor crash. induced as you might say.I found then that I could install Win98 !!!Once that was in, using DOS, formatting was straightforward.Having formatted the disc, I was able to reinstall WinXP.Apart from all else, I regained about 2.5GB freespace on that HDAgain, my thanks for your responses.Ken

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

>nor can you format that disc. You are doing something wrong then, if you boot from the cd you can do almost anything, including fdisk and format a disk.Derek

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

LAST EDITED ON Jun-25-03 AT 10:29 PM (EDT)

Bull - read the Windows help file, or the following from it.
To assign, change, or remove a drive letter
Using the Windows interfaceOpen Computer Management (Local).
In the console tree, click Disk Management.
Where?Computer Management (Local)
Storage
Disk Management

Right-click a partition, logical drive, or volume, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Do one of the following:
To assign a drive letter, click Add, click the drive letter you want to use, and then click OK.
To modify a drive letter, click it, click Change, click the drive letter you want to use, and then click OK.
To remove a drive letter, click it, and then click Remove.
ImportantBe careful when making drive-letter assignments because many MS-DOS and Windows programs make references to a specific drive letter. For example, the path environment variable shows specific drive letters in conjunction with program names.
NotesTo open Computer Management, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.
You must be logged on as a computer administrator in order to complete this procedure.
A computer can use up to 26 drive letters. Drive letters A and B are reserved for floppy disk drives, but you can assign these letters to removable drives if the computer does not have a floppy disk drive. Hard disk drives in the computer receive letters C through Z, while mapped network drives are assigned drive letters in reverse order (Z through B).
You cannot change the drive letter of the system volume or boot volume.
An error message may appear when you attempt to assign a letter to a volume, CD-ROM drive, or other removable media device, possibly because it is in use by a program in the system. If this happens, close the program accessing the volume or drive, and then click the Change Drive Letter and Paths command again.
Windows 2000 and Windows XP allow the static assignment of drive letters on volumes, partitions, and CD-ROM drives. This means that you permanently assign a drive letter to a specific partition, volume, or CD-ROM drive. When you add a new hard disk to an existing computer system, it will not affect statically assigned drive letters.
You can also mount a local drive at an empty folder on an NTFS volume using a drive path instead of a drive letter. For more information, click Related Topics.
Using a command lineOpen Command Prompt.
Type:
diskpartAt the DISKPART prompt, type:
list volumeMake note of the number of the simple volume whose drive letter you want to assign, change, or remove.At the DISKPART prompt, type:
select volume nSelect the volume, where n is the volume's number, whose drive letter you want to assign, change, or remove.At the DISKPART prompt, type one of the following:
assign letter=L
Where L is the drive letter you want to assign or change.remove letter=L
Where L is the drive letter you want to remove.Value Description
list volume Displays a list of basic volumes on all disks.
select volume Selects the specified volume, where n is the volume number, and shifts the focus to it. If no volume is specified, the select command lists the current volume with focus. You can specify the volume by number, drive letter, or mount point path. On a basic disk, selecting a volume also gives the corresponding partition focus.
assign letter=L Assigns a drive letter, L, to the volume with focus. If no drive letter is specified, then the next available drive letter is assigned. If the drive letter is already in use, an error is generated.
remove letter=L Removes the drive letter, L, from the volume with focus. If no drive letter or mount point is specified, then DiskPart removes the first drive letter or mount point it encounters.
The remove command can be used to change the drive letter associated with a removable drive. You cannot remove the drive letters on system, boot, or paging volumes.
NotesTo open command prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
You must be logged on as a computer administrator in order to complete this procedure.
A computer can use up to 26 drive letters. Drive letters A and B are reserved for floppy disk drives, but you can assign these letters to removable drives if the computer does not have a floppy disk drive. Hard disk drives in the computer receive letters C through Z, while mapped network drives are assigned drive letters in reverse order (Z through B).
You cannot change the drive letter of the system volume or boot volume.
An error message may appear when you attempt to assign a letter to a volume, CD-ROM drive, or other removable media device, possibly because it is in use by a program in the system. If this happens, close the program accessing the volume or drive, and then click the Change Drive Letter and Paths command again.
Windows 2000 and Windows XP allow the static assignment of drive letters on volumes, partitions, and CD-ROM drives. This means that you permanently assign a drive letter to a specific partition, volume, or CD-ROM drive. When you add a new hard disk to an existing computer system, it will not affect statically assigned drive letters.
You can also mount a local drive at an empty folder on an NTFS volume using a drive path instead of a drive letter. For more information, click Related Topics.
For more information about DiskPart, click Related Topics.
Kevin Arceneaux
DEFAULT IS FOR DUMMIES
Lone Wolf Activities Forum on www.3DTrains.com

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Kevin, you missed this part in your extract from the help files"You cannot change the drive letter of the system volume or boot volume." It occurs under the heading "Notes"Ken

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

How many times do I tell you YOU ARE WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The notes only apply on computer management window = not the DOS window
I have done so on this very computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
USING the DOS COMMAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'
ARE YOU THAT INCOMPETENT THAT YOU CANNOT FULLY COMPREHEND THIS? You cannot change the letter until you have mirroed the old driveonto the new. You open the DOS(Command) window. It ain't that freaking hard to do.Kevin Arceneaux
DEFAULT IS FOR DUMMIES
Lone Wolf Activities Forum on www.3DTrains.com

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

OK,perhaps I'm wrong but please note I am also POLITEKen

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Before tempers get any more frayed,I suggest the following link and software http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/maxblast3.htm

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

>Bull - read the Windows help file, or the following from it.
>
>
>To assign, change, or remove a drive letter
>Using the Windows interface Kev, I think we are going 2 different directions here.Boot from cd.
remove partition
make new partition
reboot (to boot new partition information)
boot from cd again
format c:or are we still going different directions?Derek

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

No, we are going at the same problem from different directions. Both are viable options to get to the DOS box to rename the hard drives. With the newer drives using "cable Select" for the jumper option was supposedly an easy way to move around hard drives (Didn't have to play with the jumpers), but I am not so sure about that. I just put a new WD drive in my computer and I had a hell of a time getting them renamed. It hard coded the new drive as F (I have 2 CD drives), and when I swapped the position of them on the cable it would not change the drive from F to C like in the "good old days". That was a new one to me. I had to get my XP book out and see what was going on. I ended up in a DOS box, renaming all the drives to strange letters and then reordering then as I wanted them. I never thought about booting of a CD or disk. DOH. I was tempted to use the old Master\Slave choices with the jumper, but I figured this is the way things are going so I had better learn. I still have extra jumpers. Ken, I can be polite up to a point, but when I say the same thing 3 times, politeness goes out the window. It is one of those been there\done that. I was always told to pay attention to someone who has done it and then I would know how to do it. It has payed off many times over.Kevin Arceneaux
DEFAULT IS FOR DUMMIES
Lone Wolf Activities Forum on www.3DTrains.com

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Perhaps I'm missing something,but why boot to the HDD O\S to format it?If I'm formatting a HDD,I use the HDD manufacturers software,which is floppy based,and enables me to format whatever HDD I desire.Maxtor and Seagate,and by inference all HDD manufacturers,provide such utilities,as well as diagnostic utilities to keep your drives up to scratch,or to even re-certify them as being in "as new" condition.

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

RE: Perhaps I'm missing something,but why boot to the HDD O\S to format it?No kidding! You cannot reformat the drive while the Operating system is running!!!!! It's like rebuilding your engine while your car is going 60 MPH. DOH!BTW:This isn't just XP. IF you boot to DOS (on a system that can) and you are sitting at the C: prompt... you cannot reformat DRIVE C.
If you must... create a boot floppy. Boot to the DOS Prompt... reformat the drive C: FROM DRIVE A:.Then just do what we said... boot from the CD and reinstall the OS.
FYI: I rebuild my XP system from the ground up every 3 months, whether it needs it or not. Why... because I like to. I like the practice. I reformat the drive every time... not hard at all.

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

The sad part of all of this is:Mr. Gates is laughing at us...while he's working on a new OS.
Here comes Longhorn.....And then support for the other OSs is out the window.
...I'd Rather Be Switchin....

Ben
Gulf Coast Society for Model Railroaders

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Just wondering when you tried to do the reform did you do it as the Administrator?XP needs the Administrator to do these things.Mike

Alert | IP

[ Home | MSTS Forum | MSTS FAQ | File Library ] Copyright © 2002 by Nels Anderson. All Rights Reserved.